Typically when one hears about flaming, bright objects falling from the sky, one comes to a very simple conclusion—it must be a meteorite, burning as it falls through the Earth's atmosphere.

However, last week in the south of Chile, residents on the island of Chiloe were shocked when a fireball plummeted all the way down to the ground, starting a number of fires, CNET reports.

Local property owner Bernardita Ojeda was among the residents impacted by what many assumed was a meteorite when a brush fire was sparked by the burning object.

However, on Saturday, officials from the country's National Geology and Mining Service (Sernageomin) reached the preliminary conclusion that the object could not have been a meteorite—for the simple reason that no evidence of any form of space rock could be found where the fires were started by the "luminous and incandescent object in the sky that fell in that location."